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Eastern Air Lines 401
Introduction Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was a regularly scheduled flight between New York's John F Kennedy International Airport and Miami International Airport. On 29 December 1972, the Lockheed L-1011-1 TriStar performing the flight crashed into the Florida Everglades, resulting in 101 fatalities. The pilots and the flight engineer, two of the 10 flight attendants and 96 out of the 163 passengers died. 8 flight attendants and 67 passengers survived. The crash occurred while the entire cockpit crew was preoccupied with a burnt-out landing gear indicator light. They had failed to notice that the autopilot had disengaged and as a result, the L-1011 TriStar gradually lost altitude and crashed. Flight Details Aircraft On the day of the crash, Flight 401 was operated by a four-month-old Lockheed L-1011-1 TriStar, registered as N310EA. The aircraft was delivered to Eastern Air Lines on 18 August 1972. N310EA was the 310th aircraft in Eastern Air Line's fleet and the tenth TriStar delivered to the airline. Crew The flight was under the command of Captain Robert Albin (Bob) Loft (55), a veteran pilot ranked 50th in seniority at Eastern Air Lines. Bob Loft had been with Eastern Air Lines for 32 years and racked up 29,700 total flight hours in his career. He logged 280 on the L-1011. First Officer Albert John Stockstill (39) had accumulated 5,800 hours of flight time. Flight Engineer Donald Louis Don Repo (51) accumulated 15,700 in his total flying career. Angelo Donadeo (47) was an Eastern Air Lines' employee and was returning to Miami on Eastern Air Lines Flight 401. He accompanied the flight crew for the journey but was a non-revenue passenger. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 departed New York's JFK International Airport on Friday, 29 December 1972 at 21:20 EST. The aircraft carried 163 passengers and 13 crew members. The flight was uneventful until 23:32 EST when the Lockheed L-1011-1 TriStar began its approach into Miami International Airport. After lowering the gear, First Officer Stockstill noticed the landing gear indicator had not been illuminated. The lightbulb was later determined to be burnt out, and the landing gear could have been manually lowered nonetheless. The pilots cycled the landing gear but still failed to get the confirmation light. Bob Loft told Miami tower that they would discontinue their approach and requested to enter a holding pattern. The approach controller cleared EAL401 to 2,000ft (FL020) and then hold west over the Everglades. The cockpit crew removed the light assembly, and Don Repo was dispatched to the avionics bay to confirm via a small porthole if the landing gear was indeed down. Fifty seconds after reaching their assigned altitude, Captain Loft instructed Stockstill to put the L-1011 TriStar on autopilot. For the next 80 seconds, the TriStar maintained its altitude of 2,000 feet. Then, the aircraft gradually descending to 1,900 feet (FL019) and then flew level for two more minutes. After flying at FL001 for two minutes, the L-1011 TriStar began a very shallow descent. In the following 70 seconds, the L-1011 only dropped 250 feet. Eventually, the C-chord chime warning of low altitude sounded. However, no indication was heard of the pilots' voices recorded on the CVR that they heard the chime. It took just 50 more seconds for the L-1011 to drop to 1,000 feet (FL010), half of its assigned altitude. As First Officer Stockstill started another turn to 180°, he noticed the discrepancy, saying: 'Stockstill: '''We did something to the altitude '''Loft: '''What? '''Stockstill: '''We're still at 2,000 feet right? '''Loft: '''Hey...what's happening here? Less than 10 seconds after this exchange, the L-1011 TriStar crashed 18.7 miles away from runway 9L. The aircraft was travelling at around 200 knots on impact. On impact, the left wingtip hit the surface first, then the left engine and then the left landing gear. The fuselage followed. Crash The TriStar's port outer wing structure hit the ground first, followed by the No 1 engine (left-wing) and the port mani undercarriage (gear). The disintegration of the aircraft scattered wreckage over an area measuring 1,600 feet long and 330 feet wide in a southwesterly direction. Small fragments of metal marked the wingtip's first contact. However, three massive swaths measuring 115 feet each cut through the terrain, now known to be caused by the landing gear. The No 1 port engine and fragments from the port wing hit the ground next, then came the port tailplane. 490 feet from the wingtip's initial contact, the fuselage started to break up. 820 feet along the wreckage trail, the outer section of the starboard wing tore off. Eventually, the whole fuselage started to break up more extensively. Aftermath Robert (Bud) Marquis, an airboat pilot was frog gigging with Ray Dickinsin when they witnessed the crash. They were the first ones to rescue the survivors. Marquis received burns to the face, arms and legs and received the ''Humanitarian Award ''from the American Airboat Search And Rescue Association. Eight crew members survived. Of the cockpit crew, only flight engineer Don Repo survived the initial crash, along with technical officer Donadeo. Stockstill was killed on impact. Captain Bob Loft died in the wreckage of the flight deck before he could be transported to a hospital. Donadeo was the lone survivor f the four flight deck occupants. Frank Borman, a former NASA astronaut and an Eastern Air Lines employee, took a helicopter to the crash site to investigate the accident the next day. Injuries Most of the dead were passengers in the midsection of the L-1011 TriStar. Eight passengers became infected. 60 received serious injuries and 17 suffered minor injuries. 14 survivors had burns of some kind. Investigation The NTSB investigated the accident. The investigation discovered that the autopilot had been inadvertently switched from altitude hold to control wheel steering (CWS) mode in pitch. CWS mode allows the aircraft to maintain the pitch, not altitude, of the aircraft until the control surface is moved again. NTSB investigators believe Captain Bob Loft had put minor pressure on the yoke when he leaned against the yoke while turning to speak to flight engineer Don Repo (sitting behind-right to him). The slight forward pressure would have caused the aircraft to enter a shallow descent. Investigators also uncovered the fact that the force required to switch to CWS mode was different between the A and B channels (6.8 vs 9.1 kgf). Thus, switching to CWS in channel A possibly did not occur in channel B, not allowing Stockhill to realise the autopilot switched to CWS mode. After descending 250 feet from the selected altitude, a C-chord sounded, warning of a deviation from the selected altitude. The warning went unnoticed by the crew. Captain Bob Loft was later found to have an undetected tumour in his brain, specifically in the area that controls vision. However, the NTSB investigation concluded the tumour did not contribute to the accident. Ghost Of Flight 401 John G Fuller's 1976 book ''The Ghost Of Flight 401 recounts the paranormal events aboard other Eastern Air Lines' aircraft. Aircraft repaired by pieces salvaged from the crash of N310EA have consistently shown ghost sightings of Don Repo and Bob Loft. Category:Eastern Air Lines Category:Aviation Incidents Category:Florida Aviation Incidents